How to Get Email Subscribers and Grow Your List

If you’re trying to monetize your blog to make money selling products or services, your email subscribers are your most valuable resource. Growing your email list has to be one of your top priorities if you hope to build your business online. 80% of your income will come from those subscribed to your list.

Your first step, is to secure, and use, a reputable, reliable email list provider. After much research, and some trial and error, I chose Aweber for my list provider, back in 2009, and even with updated research, still find them to be the best choice for me today.

Once you’ve chosen your email list provider, you’ll need to create an opt-in form where your readers can sign up for your list. (You do this within your email list provider). Aweber offers some great choices for the aesthetics and form options.

Place your opt-in form in a prominent place on your website. You need to make it easy for your readers to see your form and to subscribe. Another great way is to include your opt-in form at the end of, or within, relevant (or all!) blog posts. There are some really easy-to-use WordPress plug-ins you can use to create a slider or pop-up of your form, throughout your content, as well.

You should also have a dedicated landing page available that includes only what your readers can expect to gain from subscribing, along with, your opt-in form. Remove all sidebars and other distractions, so that the only thing your readers have to focus on is your all-important call-to-action to subscribe.

It’s not enough just to offer a subscription to your list anymore. Today, you need to provide your readers with more incentive to subscribe. You can easily do this by offering a free pdf, report, or ebook of valuable content or an automated email course that helps your subscriber overcome or accomplish something.

Another great tip, is to create multiple lead-generating-products to share across different platforms, based on who your audience is. Target each product to match who that particular content is speaking to. For example, to my freelance writers, I used to offer an email mini-course on Writing Winning Query Letters (now available on my blog). And, to my bloggers I currently offer a pdf, Tips and Tools for Building Your Blog Success. I also have a list, 48 Blog Post Ideas, great especially for newer , or experienced, bloggers looking for posting and content ideas to grow their blog.

Your free product offer should be informative and educational and should only be used to show your expertise and to build trust. Definitely include links throughout to any relative and valuable content within your site, but no hard sales pitches!

Once you have your list set up, you can begin creating and building your emails with valuable content that will establish you as the authority, or expert, along with building trust.

Getting subscribers allows you to stay in touch with your audience, even if they are not visiting your site and gives you the occasion to build, and nurture, a relationship. This allows you the opportunity to provide valuable content, establish yourself as the expert, and most importantly, build trust with your subscribers. Building trust is where you will convert your subscribers to buyers of your products or services. And, buyers become repeat buyers.